LETTERS

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, February 27, 2005

Brennan's Memories

I enjoyed Sam Whiting's "The Full Berkeley" (Jan. 23). I was distressed and disappointed to hear of the upcoming demise of Brennan's (and I'm presuming Celia's). Brennan's is too much of a Berkeley institution to be a victim of development in the area. It's the last source of memories of my youth.

TOM YAMASHITA

Richmond

I enjoyed "The Full Berkeley" immensely. The description of Brennan's restaurant was dead on, and yes, worth saving, too.

Although I belong to the Berkeley Brennan clan, my allegiance is with history and tradition, and the maintenance of local landmarks, which Brennan's is -- just not officially yet.

JOHN BRENNAN

San Lorenzo

I was thrilled to read "The Full Berkeley." Often a neighborhood goes unrecognized for its charm and traditions.

I am shocked to hear Brennan's might be in danger of closing. I came to Berkeley as a Cal freshman in 1973, and although my dorm served dinner, the locals all knew that Brennan's was the great place to go to get filled up and not break the bank. I have been going there ever since.

As a single mom for many years, it was the place where I could afford to dine out. It has been an institution in my life, and still is. I've sat around Brennan's over dinners, lunches, beers and Irish coffees and discussed with friends just this problem about other great institutions now long gone.

The greatest thing about Brennan's is its lack of pretension. You can walk in any time of day and see the truck drivers, jockeys from the local race track, the elderly and just your average working men and women chowing down on real food for a good price. These days of restaurants and bars constantly changing into a different one, or a chichi store I can't afford, Brennan's has been something to count on. It would be a sad day for many of us if Brennan's was gone.

BLAIR CARROLL

Berkeley

Cats Will Be Cats

Thank you for publishing the very charming "Slacker Dog" story by Susan McCarthy (Jan. 23). I certainly never imagined that pet dogs would have their own ambitions and associated limitations.

My various pet cats over the years have been uniformly unambitious, desiring only to eat, sleep, be petted, purr, bird watch, bug watch and sit in the middle of the newspaper that I happened to be reading at the time. Cats seem to be almost completely untrainable, unambitious and thus happily content to be their cat-selves, while dogs seem to have weaker egos and thus always interested in achievement and in pleasing their master.